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XCV-330 S.S. Enterprise

XCV-330 S.S. Enterprise

This is a design that I had intended to write up for a long time. It has appeared in the First Star trek film in the Enterprises gallery in the recreation deck scene as a small picture. I had seen it in other places as a design for the original series Enterprise. I didn’t have any size for it but thought that it would be much smaller than the version depicted here. I found an ortho designed by unusualsuspex on deviant and used its size. I only doubled the weight as it was far underweight by my estimate.

We are already working up an adventure around it as a derelict starship caught in a temporal anomaly that has to be rescued as the crew is still on board in cryo storage. This idea works well for a 23rd and beyond story as the 22nd century was still too new to time travel. This is the first explorer build by Starfleet as it is a non Starfleet vessel constructed before Starfleet was formed. Constructed with the aid of a few Vulcan’s who were sympathetic to the human plight while disagreeing with the Vulcan mandate of none interference and wanted to help them explore.

I like it, a good write up of a primitive warp capable vessel. One little point, wouldn't it at least have one laser cannon mounted (just for clearing debris if not for use as a 'weapon')?

AKA-Dean
"I will never make excuses for who I am. It is the way I was born. I am a HUNTER. a BONE COLLECTOR."
Wave Man, the term "wave man" is the English translation of 'Ronin' (Japanese word) and literately translates to "wandering person" and in a modern context a WaveMan is one who is socially adrift or a SalaryMan who is between employers.

thanks for the link mate. Like I said I liked your write up of this vessel, good to have a pic to go with it.

AKA-Dean
"I will never make excuses for who I am. It is the way I was born. I am a HUNTER. a BONE COLLECTOR."
Wave Man, the term "wave man" is the English translation of 'Ronin' (Japanese word) and literately translates to "wandering person" and in a modern context a WaveMan is one who is socially adrift or a SalaryMan who is between employers.

The thing that I like it looks a lot like the Vulcan ships in Enterprise.

very true, the ring nacelle set up is very reminiscent of Vulcan vessels.

AKA-Dean
"I will never make excuses for who I am. It is the way I was born. I am a HUNTER. a BONE COLLECTOR."
Wave Man, the term "wave man" is the English translation of 'Ronin' (Japanese word) and literately translates to "wandering person" and in a modern context a WaveMan is one who is socially adrift or a SalaryMan who is between employers.

The ringship was based on a set of 1970's pre-production sketches by Walter "Matt" Jefferies for a proposed series by Gene Roddenberry (probably Starship, later resurrected as Gene Roddenberry's Andromeda). An illustrator on Star Trek the Motion Picture, did a painting based loosely on Jefferies' sketches, at Gene Roddenberrys' suggestion. More information can be had at Trek Place's article "Spaceship of the Rings". There has been much confusion about these sketches, causing many commentators to suggest that this was an early sketch series for the USS Enterprise from TOS, including the writers of the Star Trek Sketchbook (although they mistakenly include sketches for the Star Trek Phase 2 refit as early sketches for TOS even though they're clearly dated '77, so this book must be taken with a small Siberian salt mine).

Rick Sternbach illustrated Stan and Fred Goldstein's Star Trek Spaceflight Chronology (Pocket Books, 1980, ISBN 0-671-79089-7), in which he did a new painting of the ringship, dubbed the Declaration class Starliner, a 300m long passenger ship with a crew of 200 and a passenger manifest of 900. Many fans, probable because of the confusion about the Matt Jefferies design, reject this concept. The Jefferies sketches show a ship some 417 feet (a mere 127 metres) in length with a radically different forward module (a tubular forward module with a large hump at the aft end, a large sphere at the forward end, a tubular structures on each side, and four smaller spheres clustered about the central hull). Based on this evidence, we must conclude that the Jefferies Starship design and the Declaration class Enterprise are completely different ships. It is possible to fit the Jefferies ship into Star Trek's chronology, but as a prototype ship testing Alcubierre warp drive designs. These designs are reminiscent of Vulcan warp drive designs. Although the Declaration writeup established that there was an Enterprise in this class, it is not the Enterprise in the Rec Room painting, as that was a smaller ship with a different bow structure. Rather, the Declaration class was based on the basic shape and using the warp dynamic test results but is otherwise an unrelated vessel. The image attached at the end of this post shows the Jefferies sketch compared to the refit Enterprise.

Following are my notes for the deck plans I'm working on:

At a length of 300 metres (984') with a deck to ceiling height of 2.5 metres (8'2.4") and deck to deck being 3 metres (9'10.08"), the ship is actually quite large, having sixteen decks. Some of them are awkwardly shaped, but can be used for storage, maintenance and equipment spaces or for lifeboats. The three deck high "neck" between the engineering section and the forward passenger decks has two decks of lifeboats and a lower deck with liquid storage. Lifeboats are also stationed on Deck Seven. Access between decks is via a turbolift system. The portside tubular section houses a swimming pool and an arbouretum, while the starboard one houses luxury cabins. There are five classes of cabin, each capable of housing two passengers. Class A cabins have a double fold-out bed/sofa. Class B cabins have twin beds and are slightly smaller. Class C cabins are with four beds and class D (or "steerage" cabins are smaller with two sets of bunk beds. Suites are twice the size of class B/C cabins, have a bedroom with a king-size bed and a parlour. Class A through D have "efficiency" style freshers, while suites have standard style bathrooms with showers.The ship carries 250 seven-place lifeboats, well over the number required.

I think I first saw the design way back in the World or the Making of Star Trek back in a book put out in the seventies along with what has become the Daedalus class. I know that the Daedalus was another early concept for the Constitution class.

No matter what the size of the Declaration class is I am staying with the size as we have generated an adventure around it and this time size matters. Maybe we will change the name for it, I am not sure I have to think on it to come up with a good name.

Having had both books, I can knowledgeably say that the design appeared in neither The World of Star Trek (1973) by David Gerrold nor The Making of Star Trek (1968) by Stephen E. Whitfield (pseudonym for Stephen Edward Poe) and Gene Roddenberry. No sketches by Matt Jefferies of the ringship can be dated before the 1970's.

The ringship XCV-330 Enterprise and the Declaration class are very different ships. Jefferies made copious sketches of the forward module of his ringship design that ponit to a very small ship. The Declaration class, while showing a similar profile, is a much larger ship at 300m long, with 16 decks. I'm in the process of doing a set of deckplans for the Declaration class Starliner, and yes, it does indeed have lots of space for 950 persons, contrary to protestations that it couldn't by many fans.